Meat the Future

Solving the protein crisis

Humanity has an insatiable hunger for meat. We’re emptying the oceans, turning the rainforest into ranches, and raising animals factory-style to satisfy our appetites. Is there a humane, eco-friendly way to get our protein fix? Along with insect farming and vegetarian substitutes, in vitro meat is a promising solution to the protein crisis. Though still expensive and difficult to produce, lab-grown muscle tissue might one day be a cheap, low-impact way of producing enough meat to feed the world.

The Kitchen Meat Incubator does for home cooking what the electronic synthesizer did for the home musician. It provides its users with a set of pre-programmed samples that can be remixed and combined to their liking. Besides the preparation of traditional styles like steak, sausage or meatballs, consumers can bring…

Rather than growing whole steaks in bio-reactors, Knitted Meat assumes that it is more feasible to create thin threads of protein. Supermarkets sell balls of meat fiber seasoned with various spices and vegetable flavors. New kitchen appliances enable consumers to weave meat according to preset preferences. Texture, taste and tenderness…

La Pâte Meat Fruit aims to seduce and inspire diners with an entirely new eating experience that balances eating meat and fruit. In vitro technology is used to grow meat structures that precisely mimic those of various existing fruits such as berries, oranges, and mangoes. The result is used to…

Magic Meatballs are designed to playfully familiarize children with lab-grown meat. Young people are more prone to overconsumption of proteins and fats, and are more sensitive to the hormones and antibiotics used in conventional meat production. Luckily, lab-grown Magic Meatballs can be tailored precisely to a child’s individual needs.
The…

Beyond imitating known meat products like steaks and hamburgers, in-vitro meat could give rise to entirely new food products and dining habits.
Paint with meat! is a speculative product for children of 5-10 years old. It allows them to prepare their own meat dish in a very creative, fun and…

Your Future Dish: Potatoes, Vegetables and Magic Meatballs?

As the planet’s population speeds towards 9 billion, it’s becomes impossible to continue consuming meat like we do today. Will we all be eating rice and beans? Grasshoppers perhaps? Scientists hope to keep us eating vertebrate protein with in vitro meat. Grown in bioreactors from animal cells, in vitro meat could be a sustainable and humane alternative to raising a whole animal from birth to slaughter.…

'Before we can decide if we will ever be willing to eat meat from the lab, we need to explore the food culture it will bring us'

Koert van Mensvoort

The In Vitro Meat Cookbook

Watch the intro video for the ‘Meat The Future’ cookbook, which presents both delicious as well as uncanny lab grown meat recipes to catalyze a conversation on the meat of the future.

Want Ketchup with those Flies?

Industrial-scale in vitro meat may be a long way off, but for meat-lovers looking for a cheap, eco-friendly source of protein, there’s no need to wait. We just have to swear off creatures with four legs and a backbone and look to tasty livestock with an exoskeleton and six, eight, or a hundred legs.…

Animal-Free Meat Could Put a Hold on Global Warming

Growing meat in the lab, rather than slaughtering animals, could become a viable alternative for people who want to cut the environmental impact of their food consumption, but cannot bear a vegetarian lifestyle.

According to scientists from Oxford University and Amsterdam University, lab-grown meat could help feed the world, while reducing the impact on the environment.…